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Barrhead native makes Canadian Bobsleigh team

A swimming pool and synchronized swimming may not be the first thing a person thinks about when they think about bobsleigh, but it didn’t stop Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton from using a unique venue and activity to announce this year’s national bobsleigh
The members of the Canadian national bobsleigh team pose with synchronized swimming duo Karine Thomas and Jacqueline Simoneau.
The members of the Canadian national bobsleigh team pose with synchronized swimming duo Karine Thomas and Jacqueline Simoneau.

A swimming pool and synchronized swimming may not be the first thing a person thinks about when they think about bobsleigh, but it didn’t stop Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton from using a unique venue and activity to announce this year’s national bobsleigh team.

On Wednesday, Nov. 12, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton announced at the Talisman Centre in Calgary the lucky athletes who would be part of Canada’s bobsleigh team. Included in the group of eight men and three athletes was Barrhead native, Melissa Lotholz.

Last season, rookie Lotholz was a breakman with veteran pilot Kaillie Humphries. They finished second in the World Cup standings in the two-person woman’s event.

Lotholz joined Humphries, who is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the women’s two-person bobsleigh event, winning both in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi, Russia in 2014, after deciding to change athletic disciplines, from track and field where she was a short distance and relay runner for the University of Alberta.

“It was actually really cool,” she told the Leader in a phone interview. Currently Lotholz is in Calgary preparing for the upcoming World Cup season with the rest of the Canadian Bobsleigh Team.

After Team Canada made the announcement of who made the national bobsleigh team, Lotholz and the rest of her teammates were put through a mini swimming camp by Canadian synchronized swimming duo, Karine Thomas and Jacqueline Simoneau.

“They split us into two groups and they gave us some basic instruction and broke things down into small segments and we tried to copy a routine they performed for us earlier in the day,” Lotholz said.

“It was interesting to see what their sport is like.” she said, adding while the two sports are very different, there were a few similarities. “Things like strength, body awareness and teamwork. Plus both take place in or on water. It’s just one is liquid and the other is ice.”

As for how the bobsleighers did, Lotholz said the winter athletes’ performances didn’t quite match the standards of Thoma and Simoneu, who are the reigning Pan Am gold medalists. The pair also qualified for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games.

Although Lotholz and most of her teammates are confident swimmers, when it comes to going from point a to b, she said the group had problems when they were asked to tread water and stay in one place.

“We are really dense athletes. Our sport is all about speed and power so we do not float,” Lotholz joked.

When asked about what the process was to make this year’s national team, Lotholz said it started in earnest in July with a trip to Calgary and the icehouse. The icehouse is a state of the art facility that allows bobsleighers to practice their push starts in real world conditions, despite the lack of snow or ice.

Prospective national team members were invited back to the icehouse to take part in a five-day national team selection process in October, called the push camp.

It was there Lotholz was able to cement, not only her spot on Canada’s national team, but her position with Humphries.

“I think Bobsleigh Canada brought in over 70 men and women to try out for bobsleigh during the testing portion of the camp,” she said, adding the two women’s national team breakman spots were selected by a combination of single and team pushes.

From the times during the single pushes, a series of three pushs starts by one athlete, determined which driver or pilot they would be paired with for the next phase of the selection process, the team push.

After both the single and team push results, Lotholz finished first overall and earned a spot with Kaillie Humphries Canada’s top bobsleigh pilot in the women’s two-person event.

In addition to team Humphries, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton has three additional development teams. The Humphries sled is the only one that will be competing on the World Cup this year.

“Even though I got the job done and improved over my push times, I had mixed results during the camp,” she said, adding she was still the only breakman to push to the World Cup standard. “I was hoping to push in the 40s. The Canadian record is 41 and it is held by Shelly-Ann Brown, the silver medalist breakwoman with Kaillie at the 2010 games.”

The number refers to the fractons of a second. Last year Lotholz pushed a 5.58 and 5.56 seconds. During the push camp her time was 5.5 seconds.

“It is still a very good time, but I was hoping for a little more, but when you are dealing with hundreds of a second everything has to align to make that magical push,” she said, adding although she was disappointed about the amount she improved, Lotholz, was pleased with her consistency of her push starts.

After the push camp the national team held a series of two selection races in Calgary and Whistler designed to help the coaches select the team and help the athletes prepare for the upcoming season.

In the first race in Calgary on Oct. 23, the team of Humphries and Lotholz finished in first place with the help of two especially quick push starts of 5.63 and 5.58 seconds respectively.

“Last year on the World Cup circuit only the Americans pushed faster than our 5.8 start time,” she said, adding about a week later the pair once again performed well finishing in first place.

As for what is next for Lotholz, on Nov. 19, she and the rest of the Canadian national bobsleigh team travelled to Europe to prepare for the start of the World Cup season. The first three races are in Germany, the first one in Altenberg, on Nov. 28.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “To be able to start the season in Altenberg where Kaillie and I got our first World Cup circuit medal (bronze) with a brand new sled (nicknamed O Holy Night), it’s almost perfect.”

Once again, Lotholz said she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what she has with out the support of friends, family and the people of Barrhead.

“I really can’t put it into words. I’m so grateful for all the support I have been getting from the people of Barrhead, not only in terms of sponsorships and donations, but also just by being excited and passing along their best wishes. I can’t tell you how much it means, especially when I am so far away from home on the World Cup circuit.”

To follow Lotholz on her journey or for information on sponsorship visit her website at www.melissalotholz.ca.


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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